The Vatican Diaries by John Thavis

Author:John Thavis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-01-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

LATINIST

THE SWISS GUARD paced back and forth along a section of the covered loggia, down the hall from the pope’s apartment. His heels ticked against cipollino marble, buffed to a lustrous milky green. In the ceiling vaults above him, biblical scenes unfolded in splendid Renaissance frescoes. His cell phone lay on the travertine balustrade; superiors didn’t like that, but what was he supposed to do? His striped uniform had no pockets. The guard snapped to attention when the elevator door opened and two monsignors scurried past, heads bent, whispering their way toward the secretary of state’s foreign affairs offices. Then he heard the booming voice.

“Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur—The world wants to be deceived! Mundus Vaticanus vult decepi! That’s it, friends. Look around you! All this stuff, all these offices, making more documents, more of the same drivel. Do you think Jesus would recognize this place? O Lord, deliver us! Believe me, if Jesus came back here today, they wouldn’t even let him in!”

The Swiss Guard relaxed. It was only Foster.

Ambling slowly, flanked by two dazed visitors, Father Reginald Foster was giving one of his unauthorized tours of the Vatican’s inner sanctum. Dressed in a frayed blue workman’s uniform from JC Penney, he looked more like a washing machine repairman than a Catholic priest. His round head was bald except for some silver trim, and it glowed red when he got worked up, which was often. His smile was mischievous, and his guests seemed to be having trouble figuring him out. Every now and then he paused, heaved his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug and laughed to himself. “Hee, hee, hee!”

Foster cocked his head and gestured to the Swiss Guard. “Our friend!” And soon he was telling his visitors the story about the guard’s hometown on the other side of the Alps. The Swiss Guards on the whole liked Foster: He talked to them and actually seemed interested in their lives. Technically, the guard should have reminded Foster that he wasn’t supposed to be leading visitors through here anymore. The rule had come down years earlier. But Foster was an exception, it seemed, to every rule at the Vatican.

“That’s where the pope lives, people, get it?” Foster pointed to the closed doors at the end of the hallway, only a stone’s throw from his own office, where he and four other Latinists translated papal letters and documents into the church’s official language. The pope, however, never strayed casually into their workplace. When he did pay a visit—once in a pontificate, usually—it was an official one, accompanied by much pomp. That was the kind of thing Foster couldn’t stand.

“They’ve got the pope closed up here, writing encyclicals that no one ever reads!” He roared out the words, and his visitors quaked, glancing around nervously, as if afraid someone important would hear him. “The pope should go down to the sidewalks and listen to what people are talking about! He should go ride the Sixty-four bus for a day! Then he’d

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.